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University of Hawaii

The University of Hawaii system consists of 10 campuses spread across six Hawaiian islands. The campuses include dozens of educational, training and research centers. The university was established in 1907 as the College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in Honolulu. Today, under a new name, the university serves more than 54,000 undergraduate and graduate students in more than 640 educational programs including 130 bachelor's degree programs, 90 master's degree programs and 50 doctoral programs. There are also at least 114 associate's degree programs available for students in the UH system, and a number of web-based distance-learning opportunities. UH's fiscal year 2012 budget is $902.3 million.

History:
The university first opened in 1907 as the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts. The school opened up with only 10 students and 13 faculty members. It graduated its first class of three students in 1912. That same year, the school was renamed the College of Hawaii and moved to Manoa Valley. William Kwai Fong Yap petitioned the territorial legislature for university status in 1920. The University of Hawaii graduated its first Ph.D., J. S. Phillips in 1931, who wrote his dissertation about ant control in pineapple fields.

In 1941, the school was closed for two months following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In 1964, UH created the modern UH Community Colleges system, with Honolulu, Kapiolani, Kauai, and Maui campuses. Hawaii voters strongly supported constitutional autonomy for the University in 2000, which gave more control to the university in matters concerning the management of its resources.

Faculty:
The university has approximately 4,200 faculty members distributed among its 10 campuses. They teach more than 600 programs, including a number of web-based distance-learning opportunities.

Budget:
The University of Hawaii's annual budget is about $902.3 million, amounting to about 8 percent of the state’s total operating budget. Its budget is separate from the department of education's budget. Its funding sources include the state general fund, tuition, student fees, special funds and grants.

Accreditation:
The University of Hawaii receives its accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission for Schools. In 2004, the university almost lost its accreditation over a disagreement between the board and then-president Evan Dobelle over his alleged use of university funds for personal purposes. The negative attention lowered morale within the university system. In April 2010, the commission reported marked improvement in the relationship between the board and the president, and an overall higher morale among students and faculty.

Board of Regents:
The University of Hawaii Board of Regents is the primary authority for the university system. The 15 regents are nominated by a special council for that purpose, and then appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature. The regents appoint a university president who is then responsible for carrying out the policies and standards issued by the board.

The Campuses:
• UH Manoa — The University of Hawaii at Manoa was established in 1907 and is the flagship campus of the UH System. The university is ranked as a Division I athletics program and is a part of NCAA. UH Manoa is a 320-acre campus situated just outside downtown Honolulu.

• UH Hilo — Located on the Big Island in Hawaii, the University of Hawaii at Hilo was established in 1947. Its strengths are the studies of volcanoes, marine sciences and astronomy. The campus houses some of the world’s best telescopes. UH Hilo is also the only place in the nation where students can earn a master’s degree in indigenous language studies.

• UH West Oahu — University of Hawaii-West Oahu is located in Pearl City and was established in 1976.

• Hawaii Community College — Located on the Big Island, Hawaii Community College was established in 1941 primarily to provide vocational education in areas such as automotive mechanics, carpentry, machine shop, and dress making. HCC eventually incorporated programs such as agriculture and nursing.

• Honolulu Community College — Located near downtown Honolulu, Honolulu Community College was established in 1920. It has a liberal arts curriculum focused in aviation, automotive arts, transportation, IT, communications, and construction.

• Kapiolani Community College — Located near Diamond Head, on the island of Oahu, Kapiolani Community College was established in 1964. It is known for its culinary arts program, health sciences, and emergency medical services.

• Kauai Community College — Located on the island of Kauai, Kauai Community College was established in 1964. The college focuses on vocational and professional training for transfer-level liberal arts education.

• Leeward Community College — Located near Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Leeward Community College was established in 1968. The school has a strong culinary arts program, as well as professional and community performing arts programs that attract thousands each year.

• Maui College — Maui College is located in Kahului, Maui and was established in 1964. Maui College is often noted for their culinary arts program and the Maui Language Institute.

• Windward Community College — Windward Community College is located in Kaneohe on Oahu and was established in 1972. It is known for its creative arts and Hawaiian Studies.

Latest Articles

Waking up at 4 a.m. was definitely not on my list of fun things to do this spring break, but I’m so glad I did. I experienced the amazing opportunity of accompanying a woman who spends every morning on my television screen. Lost in the excitement of being with KITV’s Morning News Anchor Lara Yamada, the memory of lugging myself out of bed was soon forgotten.

I was lucky enough to be one of four students invited by the Sustainable Hawaii Youth Leadership Initiative (SHYLI) to join its third-annual Job Shadowing Day. On March 17, Sherry Anne Pancho, Juanito Moises Jr., Alex Siordia and I took a big step closer to our future careers. Each of us was given the chance to be mentored by professionals in our fields of interest.

Oceanit graciously hosted our two aspiring engineers, Sherry and Juanito. Sherry wants to be a bio-medical engineer, designing prosthetics. She was moved after a neighbor, whose legs were lost in the war at Afghanistan, passed away. “I want to help the people facing life-threatening situations like that.” Sherry was touched when Ocean it engineer Frank Price explained how he designs lasers that improve brain function.

State Rep. Isaac Choy’s recently introduced and deferred HB 555 betrayed a narrow and destructive conception of the University of Hawaii’s purpose. Furthermore, it displayed a startling misunderstanding of the structure of higher education and represented profoundly irresponsible legislative overreach.

Choy proposed to eliminate all undergraduate programs that graduated less than 10 students a year unless the program was financially self-sustaining.

Ka Leo reported that among those programs which would have needed to prove self-sufficiency were French, German, Russian, Dance, Physics, Pacific Island Studies, Geology, Meteorology, Biological Engineering, and Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences. Also under threat of elimination were 11 of the 12 secondary education programs on offer.

The proposal was deferred, but in the future, Choy would do well to consider three things.

First, the number of program graduates is not indicative of utility or value to the University. There will never be a time when Meteorology students are more numerous than Business majors – we need fewer meteorologists than capable business leaders, and foreclosing the possibility of studying meteorology for this reason is irresponsible.

Further, some small programs represent new and emerging fields. Biological engineering is a rapidly growing field, stretching from alternative energy sources to environmental remediation techniques like wastewater treatment. Competitive research institutions across the U.S. are investing in fields like biological engineering despite the potential for losses in the short term.

The University of Hawaii, as a land-grant institution, has a responsibility to maintain programs that advance practical science and

University of Hawaii Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman has announced the formation of an eight-person search advisory committee to find a new athletic director, who will be tasked with turning around a department that’s expected to end this year $3.5 million in the hole.

Current Athletic Director Ben Jay said last month that he plans to resign for “personal and professional reasons.”

Top Hawaii business executives and doctors will steer the committee along with UH faculty members. Warren Haruki, president and CEO of Grove Farm Co. and chairman and CEO of Maui Land and Pineapple Co., will chair the committee, the university said Tuesday.

Robert Bley-Vroman, right, chancellor at University of Hawaii at Manoa, speaks to media after UH Athletics Director Ben Jay announced his resignation, Dec. 9, 2014. A search committee has been formed to find a replacement by mid-year.

Cory Lum/Civil Beat

“We are looking for a leader capable of excelling in multiple areas including community outreach and partnership building, with the dual goals of continuing academic achievement of our student-athletes while putting UH’s 21 teams in the best possible position to win,” Bley-Vroman said. “We also need someone with the ability and agility to lead UH during this complex and important time in the evolving national collegiate athletics landscape.”

Jay appeared last month before a panel of state lawmakers as university officials made their case for more taxpayer-funded budget support.

They said athletics is important to Hawaii as a community, not just to the university and students. And as such, they said it’s

The state auditor’s office, led by Jan Yamane, has found that 17 of 65 funding sources for the University of Hawaii have at least one thing wrong with them and some should be repealed altogether because they no longer serve their original purpose.

The auditor’s 74-page report, released Tuesday, offers a look at UH’s special, revolving and trust funds and trust accounts. Together, the funds collected more than $641 million last year and spent or transferred almost $637 million. The report shows an ending balance of almost $267 million as of June 30.

The audit raises questions about the university supplementing at least 10 revolving and special funds with general fund money.

The state auditor has reviewed 65 funding sources for the University of Hawaii.

Civil Beat file photo

For instance, the report notes that the Student Health Center Revolving Fund reported fiscal year ending balances ranging from $444,000 in 2010 to $3.6 million in 2014. During that same period, the center received general fund appropriations of $320,000 in 2010 and as much as $530,000 in 2013.

“It appears the revolving fund could have paid for core administrative personnel and that general fund appropriations used were not necessary,” the auditor wrote, noting that the fund’s ending balance was $2.8 million.

UH President David Lassner responded in a letter to the auditor, saying the center relies on the general fund money to fund administrative personnel.

“To impose this cost to our students at this time would mean having to raise our mandatory student health fee again,” he said. “Students are already

University of Hawaii officials want state taxpayers to help the 10-campus system pay its electric bills and unfunded federal mandates like the gender-equity dictates of Title IX that they project will cost more than $70 million over the next two years.

UH President David Lassner, Board of Regents Chair Randy Moore, interim Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman and other officials presented their biennium budget request — $74 million in additional funding on the operating side, $400 million in capital improvements — to the House Higher Education Committee during an all-day informational briefing Thursday at the Capitol.

Gov. David Ige’s executive budget request is due next week. The 2015 legislative session convenes Jan. 21 and lawmakers will be hashing out the overall state budget bill over the following few months.

University of Hawaii President David Lassner listens to a question from Rep. Calvin Say during a legislative briefing Thursday at the Capitol.

Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat

Rep. Isaac Choy, who chairs the Higher Education Committee, and several other representatives grilled university officials over various aspects of their budget request, often seeking assurances that whatever money the state contributes to UH’s overall budget will be well spent.

Paying for rising electricity bills has become a problem throughout the university system despite efforts to use less energy. Almost $51 million of the $74 million two-year operating budget request is for utility costs.

At the Manoa campus, Bley-Vroman said Hawaiian Electric Company rates have increased 44 percent in recent years, jumping to 27

Food Bank Finds Kekoa Eter, 2, clutches boxes of cereal after his mother stopped off at the Kaumakapili Church food bank on Wednesday. Scores of people arrived at 6 a.m. to await donated canned goods and cereal from various churches and nonprofit groups on the day before Thanksgiving.

Helping Hands Volunteer Alfredo Garcia, right, assists a food recipient by carrying a large bag of canned goods upstairs at the Kaumakapili Church food bank.

By the Bagful Volunteer Kim Thai of Honolulu works with bags containing canned goods during the Kaumakapili Church food bank.

The Small Version An architectural model of Aloha Stadium on display in an entrance to the full-size version.

The Real Deal Aloha Stadium is all too spacious for the turnout at the University of Hawaii’s season finale football game Saturday against UNLV.

The University of Hawaii has enlisted a familiar face to lobby for federal research dollars in Washington, D.C., under a new contract signed last month.

Jennifer Sabas, the former chief of staff for the late U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye, will be part of a two-person lobbying team from The National Group that will try to secure funds in fields such as astronomy, ocean sciences and food sustainability.

The $189,000 annual contract also calls for the lobbyists to push for policies that will increase affordability at the university, in particular for immigrants, veterans and under-served minorities.

The UH wants more research dollars to bolster some of its top tier programs, including those in astronomy and ocean sciences.

PF Bentley/Civil Beat

Sabas is well-connected both in Hawaii and Washington, D.C., and was a major force behind Inouye’s wish to see a $5.2 billion rail line built on Oahu.

She told Civil Beat she plans to use her decades of experience working for Inouye to help increase the university’s clout.

“We’re going to focus on those areas where UH is nationally renowned,” Sabas said. “Our goal is actually connecting the dots with the executive branch and, of course, our own delegation.”

Jennifer Sabas

Submitted photo

She’s currently involved in a number of other endeavors, including rail advocacy through Move Oahu Forward and consulting with the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce to restructure its military affairs department.

Sabas is also working to bring a $50 million center dedicated to her former boss to the

Gov. Neil Abercrombie has selected his candidates for the four University of Hawaii Board of Regents seats that were vacated because of a new law requiring regents to publicize their financial disclosure statements.

They are Simeon Acoba, a former Hawaii Supreme Court associate justice who would represent Oahu; Dileep Bal, a Department of Health officer on Kauai; Peter Hoffman, a former Hawaii County councilman; and Helen Nielsen, a field representative for U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz who lives on Maui. (Their bios are included below.)

Abercrombie made his selections from a list of 14 candidates provided by the council in charge of identifying prospective regents. The four nominees are subject to a confirmation from the Senate and would fill the seats on an interim basis.

The seats were vacated by four former regents who weren’t comfortable with publicizing their financial interests. The new law requires public financial disclosures for an additional 15 boards and commissions, including the 15-member governing board for UH. At least a dozen members of other boards and commissions also resigned in response to the law.

Abercrombie intended to veto the legislation, citing his concern that the new requirement would discourage worthy people from public service. He eventually let the measure become law without his signature.

But from the looks of his four picks, the concern about candidates’ caliber appears unfounded. Civil Beat checked in with some of the candidates last month and got the same feedback.

“With backgrounds in law, health, the military and environmental sustainability, these appointees bring a diverse spectrum of leadership to the University of Hawaii,”

The White House unveiled a new public-service campaign today that aims to combat sexual violence on college campuses through a network of student leaders, advocacy groups and corporations tasked with shifting the way people think about such assaults.

The “It’s On Us” campaign wants everyone to see that it’s his or her responsibility to prevent sexual assault.

“The campaign reflects the belief that sexual assault isn’t just an issue involving a crime committed by a perpetrator against a victim, but one in which the rest of us also have a role to play,” a White House press release says. “We are committed to creating an environment – be it a dorm room, a party, a bar or club, or the greater college campus – where sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.”

UH Manoa was one of the many colleges and universities recently investigated for potentially mishandling sexual violence. The school, however, doesn’t appear to have any representatives participating in the White House’s new student-driven campaign to combat college assault.

PF Bentley/Civil Beat

The student representatives are key to bringing the campaign to individual campuses. A key goal involves motivating college men to participate.

But a Civil Beat review of the list of the nearly 200 schools represented in the student-led campaign reveals that Hawaii doesn’t have a single delegate. It’s one of just five states without student representation on the campaign.

Hawaii’s omission from the list is particularly noteworthy because its flagship campus — the University of Hawaii at Manoa — was recently investigated

The council in charge of nominating candidates for the University of Hawaii’s Board of Regents today announced the finalists for the four seats that were vacated because of a new law requiring members to submit public financial disclosure statements.

Specifically, the law requires that members of the Board of Regents and another 14 boards and commissions publicize their financial interests. Earlier this summer, the measure prompted the resignations of at least 16 members, including four regents: Carl Carlson (Hawaii County), John Dean (Honolulu), Saedene Ota (Maui) and Tom Shigemoto (Kauai).

The board is made up of 15 seats total.

Photo illustration showing the four members of the UH Board of Regents who have resigned in recently. From left, Carl Carlson Jr., John Dean, Tom Shigemoto and Saedene Ota.

PF Bentley/Civil Beat

Now, the regents’ Candidate Advisory Council has presented a list of candidates to Gov. Neil Abercrombie to fill the four seats on an interim basis. The duration of the appointments is subject to confirmation by the state Senate.

A great idea rarely achieves its full potential if it fails to make it into the marketplace.

That’s the premise behind a new center at the University of Hawaii — the XLR8UH Proof of Concept Center — that aims to connect researchers and startup entrepreneurs with investors, “providing a launch pad for commercialization.”

Vassilis Syrmos, UH vice president for research and innovation, says the absence of such a center often results in a “valley of death” — “the vast chasm that often prevents a great idea from reaching commercial viability.”

The University of Hawaii’s Innovation Initiative aims to double outside research funding to $1 billion annually.

UH

“The crossover to commercialization is expensive and for many scientists, including our own, success without the proper ecosystem that a POCC provides often results in the proverbial ‘valley of death’,” Syrmos said in a statement.

UH is already engaging in world-class research, and it has been for some time. A UH scientist cloned the world’s first green mouse back in the 1990s. More recently, students designed and built a small satellite that deployed into space last year.

But without a proof of concept center, many ideas struggle to get recognition, a UH press release says. Proof of concept centers are growing in popularity at universities across the country.

“XLR8UH will harvest promising UH research, develop talented UH entrepreneurs and connect them to a diverse network of investors and businesses,” the press release says. Successful technologies could also be eligible for further funding from the Upside Fund, a UH-focused venture fund

With fall semester classes starting up today, Gov. Neil Abercrombie has announced the release of $39 million to the University of Hawaii for capital improvement projects at various campuses statewide.

The projects include repairs, maintenance and upgrades “to ensure functional academic environments and accessible, affordable higher education opportunities for the people of Hawaii,” Abercrombie said in a statement.

$10,000,000 – Minor CIP Projects for Campuses of the Community College System, statewide – Design and construction funds for capital renewal and deferred maintenance projects of UH Community College (CC) campuses, including the renovation of the cafeteria at Honolulu CC, refurbishment of Ohia Auditorium at Kapiolani CC, renovation of the Diamond Head portables at Leeward CC, renovation of storage space to science lab/classroom at Hawaii CC, renovation of the former Ceramics Building at Maui CC, and renovation of the Fine Arts I Building at

Lately the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s finances have garnered a lot of attention as faculty members, students and the public speculate about the firing of Chancellor Tom Apple and its connection with his directive to freeze all hiring in an effort to stop the budget bleeding.

Talk about the budget has gotten especially heated as Apple supporters and others scrutinize the university’s Cancer Center, a research unit administratively attached to UH Manoa that’s been criticized for its divisive leadership and alleged over-reliance on students’ tuition money.

In a recent letter, Apple primarily blamed his demise on the Cancer Center and his unsuccessful attempts to remove its director, Michele Carbone, and restrict its spending. Apple said he took a range of measures to deal with the campus’s financial shortfalls.

New UH Manoa students on a walking tour of the campus Thursday.

PF Bentley/Civil Beat

But some people say the Cancer Center and Carbone are being scapegoated.

“It’s a result of people connecting dots that don’t actually connect that way,” said Board of Regents Chairman Randy Moore in a recent interview with Civil Beat.

Either way, the beginning of a new school year is a good time to analyze how money flows into, around and out of UH Manoa. Conversations with a range of key stakeholders — including Moore, UH faculty union Executive Director J.N. Musto and university Budget Director Laurel Johnston — reveal that even the insiders lack clarity as to how cash works

Tom Apple, who was removed as head of the University of Hawaii at Manoa this week, wrote in a recent letter that his job was at risk because he ruffled the feathers of a small group of powerful people who didn’t like his approach to the campus budget.

Apple wrote a rebuttal letter late last month to UH president David Lassner, who on July 18 had handed Apple a negative annual evaluation claiming he failed to unify leadership on campus and failed to ensure its financial stability.

It was this evaluation that prompted Apple’s high-profile dismissal. (Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to the evaluation being based on comments from 360 people.)

Tom Apple, former chancellor of UH Manoa.

University of Hawaii

Apple on Thursday provided Civil Beat with several internal memos he exchanged with Lassner, including the rebuttal letter, that shed further light on the circumstances behind his termination. Apple said he had intended for all the names cited in the documents to be redacted, but the redactions were inadvertently removed because of a technological error, revealing the names of people Apple believes precipitated his firing.

They include Michele Carbone, director of the UH Cancer Center, and former UH Board of Regents Chairman John Holzman. Apple’s memos also reference other individuals without naming them.

Lassner gave Apple his termination letter Wednesday, along with a settlement offer that includes a $299,000 tenured faculty position in the school’s chemistry department and a